Woodrat Podcast 2: Elizabeth Adams and “Odes to Tools”

In which I am flabbergasted by Beth’s secret plot to rescue some of my poems from a purely digital existence and give them a better life in print north of the border. We talk about the pitfalls of self-plagiarism, what writers can learn from musicians, the ins and outs of small publishing, and what the hell is up with chalk-line reels that aren’t blue. I read a few of the odes, and manage a plausible-sounding explanation for what I was thinking when I came up with the series.

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Dave Bonta (bio) crowd-sources his problems by following his gut, which he shares with 100 trillion of his closest microbial friends — a close-knit, symbiotic community comprising several thousand species of bacteria, fungi, and protozoa. In a similarly collaborative fashion, all of Dave’s writing is available for reuse and creative remix under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License. For attribution in printed material, his name (Dave Bonta) will suffice, but for web use, please link back to the original. Contact him for permission to waive the “share alike” provision (e.g. for use in a conventionally copyrighted work).

Isn’t it, though? I love the photo of the angel with broken-off fingers, and the back-cover photo is one of the best examples of selective coloring in an otherwise black-and-white photo I’ve seen. I only regret it’s a going to be a little CD booklet (rather than, say, a very extravagent LP).

Finally listened to this (listening to casts is so fun but it takes so much time!) I’ve toyed with the idea of “publishing” Cibola at Lulu, or some such, just because I really want to read it as a physical book, in my hands. The two things stopping me being that I don’t know enough to edit it properly and that I’m too lazy. But your stuff seems to elicit this impulse, Dave!

Ack! Please don’t publish Cibola! If you want a printed copy, I believe there are web services that specialize in one-off books.

Being too lazy is a huge impediment for me getting more of this kind of thing done, too. I mean, as I said in the podcast, I was never opposed to making a “Words on the Street” collection, just not sufficiently motivated. Because when you get right down to it, it’s always more fun to write new blog posts, poems, or whatever than to fiddle with the old ones.

Not to worry, I wouldn’t do such a thing without warning, let alone without permission. It’s really a magnificent poem, though, and I don’t know of anything like it. (Which doesn’t mean much, since I basically have no idea what’s been written since about 1910. But still.)

Dang, good to hear voices associated with names first learned and known–what–6-7 years ago? Thanks, Dave, for podcasting help this week, some hurdles passed, some yet to grapple with. Sent my son (who FINALLY after years of wanting one got a banjo for Christmas) your banjo poems.